We have a ‘bromantic’ banter. We hit it off from the start, thank God, because we spend so much time together and it’s fun.

— Alex O’Loughlin, The Sun-Herald, 30 January 2011

For the second part of our trip down memory lane of Hawaii Five-0Season 3, we take a look at the Bromance. Most of the fans will agree that the friendship and bond between Steve and Danno, is the heart of the story. Although their story is intertwined in all the episodes, some of them focused more on the essence of it! This is our take on those episodes……

(We apologize in advance for the length – but hope that you will find some good stuff along the way and in the end enjoy the Bromance with us :smile:)

The Bromantic Affair (9 Episodes)

I got the feeling that a lot of the big time Bromance (and shipping) fans, feel like there was too little Steve and Danno this season. For me on the other hand, their relationship showed maturity and rather profound moments! And despite Danny just being Danny, we got to know him a lot better. Let’s see what I mean…..

During a fishing trip, McGarrett and Danny wind up stranded in the ocean on a leaking dinghy after a killer steals their boat at gunpoint.

Our two friends are spending some bonding time together on the ocean, just to be interrupted by the ever-present criminal elements that haunt Hawaii. 🙂 Needless to say that before long they stare danger and death in the face. Danno’s story of the loss of his childhood friend to the ocean, bring us a little bit closer to understanding his character and I think Steve understood his friend and his feelings about being surrounded by the ocean in Hawaii, that much better as well!

Gone fishing

That’s a big fish!

Saving the dingy

Ugly Corpses:Both husband and wife ending up dead. Neither of them were particularly ugly corpses, but the sadness of the situation really hit me, especially when the innocent sister became a murderer at the end by taking revenge ….. really really sad!

Awful surprises: Playing good Samaritancan sometimes backfire on you! And there are sharks in the ocean….. 😀

A gruesome murder on Halloween night appears to be related to a Satanic ritual, and Five-0 must find the killer before he claims a second victim.

There goes my good time…

A Goat?!

Yes he is pretty

Grabbing the badge

The victims

sigh…..

You’re gonna hate it…

Happy family…

It might be a little bit difficult to explain why I regard this episode as a Bromance episode. It was so much about Danny’s frustrations of being a cop and a father and it will forever be the tug of war inside himself. He has a calling to serve as a policeman and with it the need and believe that it protects his daughter, but that same job also keeps him away from her. For him that is so big that Steve’s small problem of not getting laid on Halloween or Guy Fawkes day, does not really matter or bother him at all!! 😛

We once again saw that time in solving the cases are of the essence. They saved one person´s life by doing their job. In Episode 3:03 they could have saved the sister from becoming a murderer. All the pressure to work as quickly as possible, make things bad for them in a family life. There will always be disappointments. Danny most probably lost his wife and a normal family life because of it and it can make Steve reluctant to ever want to have a family…….

Ugly Corpse: I young woman with her body parts ripped out from her body while she was still alive, is definitely not a pretty sight….especially if you find her remains in a dark alley in a dumpster!

Awful surprise: That little old helpless looking grandmas can be evil!

While Five-0 discovers a terrorist cell on the island, Danny has a flashback to one of the most eventful days of his life while working as a Newark police officer in 2001.

I have not watched this episode without crying yet ….. although I know the story, it just catches me every time! It is interesting that one day can be so full of events that it can simultaneously be one of the best and one of the worst days in your life …… I have had a day like that in my life and I think I understand a little bit of how Danny felt since that day in his life!

Danny finding out Rachael is pregnant, making a big drug bust, getting beaten, losing his partner in a terrible manner and in the end being saved by one of the most horrible man-made events in the history of the world! To hear that story made me understand Danny so much better – as he said, he feels like he is a person living on borrowed time. The event that created so much pain in many lives, actually gave him a second chance and I think he feels a bit guilty about it as well. But since then he also felt this terrible need to protect his daughter at all costs, because she was born in a world that robbed us from a lot of freedom that we took for granted up until that moment….

Once again our two friends stared death in the face together and the light banter and that soulful hug at the end, just made us love them even more ….. and once again I am crying while I type this!!

Caught!

Analysing the evidence

Waiting

The relieve

Just because

Looking at history

Thank you my brother

Ugly Corpses:

This blown apart body, might be one of the ugliest corpses we have seen …. but to me one of the those I have no sympathy for. A person building a bomb to kill the innocent, in my book deserves it – he just died too quickly!

As with the corpse of the drug dealer “Terence Howard”, it makes a “pretty” sight…… people dealing in drugs might not look as bad as bomb planting terrorist, but the far-reaching effect of their “trade” destroys millions of lives.

Max building puzzles

Getting answers

The death of a gangster

Awful surprise: Danny thinking that he saved the day by shooting the last terrorist that they chased, just to find out he has trapped himself in the deadly zone of a proximity detonator!

McGarrett discovers that a botched bank robbery actually wasn’t about the money, while Danny protects a Victoria’s Secret supermodel who has been threatened by a stalker.

You might ask the question of why this should be a “Bromance” episode. For me the reason also lies in the case. Two men who are about to die from cancer and who both have done some stupid and awful things in their lives, want to “help” each other (forming their own Bromance of death). But they just show us once again, how even at the end they were not capable of making good choices. Maybe because the point of origin for their actions, being selfishness.

In comparison to that, our two friends Steve and Danno, use their friendship for the greater good. They may not always be perfect in the decisions they make, but for them it is always about trying to do the right thing and to protect the innocent.

I’ll take it from here

Stalker

What is happening

Ugly Corpse: We actually do not really see a body until close to the end, when Danny shoots the model´s stalker. (A stalker who seriously wounded another celebrity, were sentenced to a facility where she was supposed to get help. Escaped from that facility and followed her new prey from the mainland – now storming towards her with an ugly big knife. )

Awful surprise: Two wrongs do not make a right ……. to try and solve problems with crime, will most probably backfire on you and hurt people!

McGarrett and a young girl are held hostage by a diamond thief during a campout, and Kono’s boyfriend, Adam, welcomes his brother back from prison and gives him an offer to become a legitimate businessman.

That is how it’s done!

The protector

Trust me

Just to show us how much more time these two friends are spending together while off duty, we find them once again in a situation that was supposed to be fun, but things rapidly go bad and they all land in grave danger. Every thought of Steve to try to do some heroic SEAL stuff, gets blown away the minute the criminal shoots and wounds Danny.

For me some of the best Bromance episodes are actually those where our two friends spend most of the time apart. You kind of see the level of how much they mean to each other when they have to “fight” their way back to each other. (Does that make any sense at all? 😀 ) These two men come from such different backgrounds – Danny a true city boy who got kicked out of Scouts and are afraid of spiders. Steve the nature lover that most probably knows every skill in the survival handbook and who think danger is a thrill to be remembered

Ugly Corpse: Tom Arnold could never make a pretty corpse 😀 (BTW, I thought he did an exceptional job with this role – as did the rest of the supporting cast)

Awful surprise: When you think you are dealing with one bad person and to your surprise an even more dangerous criminal who turns out to be the brain behind it all, appears and poses an even bigger threat!

A college professor is murdered, but who is the killer: his boss, his teaching assistant, or one of his students? Meanwhile, Kono is assigned to protect an annoying witness released from federal prison.

Is this bringing a nephew to work day?

You think?

The two dads

Come to pappa

He’s cute

Look at that.

Our two men “parenting” a young adult was kind of hilarious. Of course for Dannythis was more serious than for Steve. Danny kind of grew up in the ‘real’ world and admitted that he also needed some ‘serious’ guidance from his own dad, to get back on track. Steve on the other hand grew up with the discipline of the military and with all the discipline he most probably stayed the course easier and never needed to be told how serious the world can be.

In the end the episode left me wanting more, more of what our two friends have to offer as “tutors” or parents.

Ugly Corpse: A body ‘burned’ in a tub of acid looks awful. All goeey and slymie – yikes!

Awful surprise: Good people (who try to make the world a better place) get killed…. by bad people (out of greed)

The governor asks Five-0 to handle a delicate investigation involving a dead prostitute, but is he really trying to cover up the case for an important political ally

How much can we read into these words from Steve in the courtroom………?

Steve: ” Detective Williams does not just work for me, he´s my friend, he´s my close friend. I’ve seen him with his daughter. He’s actually the kind of father we all wish we had.”

Was Steve actually showing us a small glimpse of how he really feels about his own father just shipping him and Mary off when they were kids? Not fighting to be with them, like Danny is doing with Gracie – trying to keep her close at all costs. Contrary to what Rachael might feel, Danny believes that in order to protect Gracie, she needs to be close to him. John McGarrett thought in order to protect his children, he would send them away as far as possible! Who do you think is the better father?!

Great news!

What we do for friends.

My friend is a good father.

Because I wanted to….

Ugly Corpse: A dead prostitute in a politician’s bed is definitely not a pretty sight for any campagne!

Awful surprise: Wo Fat is always lurking in the shadows and can pop up as the bad guy and brain behind any case!

McGarrett´s and Danny’s plan to go to the NFL Pro Bowl is interrupted when a computer executive is murdered during a team-building exercise at a corporate retreat.

Is this an episode of ‘bro’s before ho’s girlfriends? 😆 In the case of Steve and Danny, it feels more like loyalty to each other for me. First of all sticking with your friend and the plans you made (although I also think Steve thought Danny’s seats might be better than Cath’s 😀 ) Danny giving up his “wonderful” seats to support his injured friend, is just who he is (and in return, Steve would have done the same for him).

Thinking

Who can get mad at this?

We’re not aguing

Anybody for a threesome?

Please Steve….

Let me introduce you

Just as a sidenote:

By looking at Steve’s clothing and hair in the footage of Episode 3:17, it looks like the video for the RU OK? day campagne of 12 September 2013, was shot on set, while they were filming during the last two weeks of January 2013

RU OK?

With the tools that today’s social media give us, we can actually mean something to people thousands of miles away from us, even those we have never met, on the other side of the world. My personal experience for the past year and a half has been that my online friends made many a ‘NOT SO OK day’, a whole lot better – Thank you!

Ugly Corpse: A worker betrayed and killed by his employer – our place of work should be a safe haven and not a threat!

Awful surprise: Girls can like sports and sometimes even get and appreciate great tickets just like men! 😀

Five-0 discovers the body of a missing 17-year-old girl who was kidnapped 10 years earlier, and soon learn that the captors may already have a new victim. Meanwhile, Kono suspects that her boyfriend may be keeping secrets from her

Cute

Who can be so awful?

Sympathy

Father and daughter!

For me the Bromance took on a type of raw maturity and trust during this episode. Both men knew what the other one needed to do and they trusted each other to do so! Steve’s words of “Give me your badge” and his body language just told the story – My friend needs this, we as a team need answers and we will trust each other to get it any way we can!

The subject of police brutality is open for a lot of debate, but at some point there must be a line between a sure suspects rights and an innocent child’s life! And I think they drew that line right there…….

Fear

What is this place?

You will talk!

Give me your badge!

We found you!

Happy Steve

Memories

Ugly Corpse: Seeing a young person dead, no matter how beautiful they were, is always ugly. Knowing what her life and fate has been like makes it even worse!

So sad!

Awful surprise: Out of greed people can do anything! It is hard to think that, that type of greed exist in our world!

*****

I love the relationship between McGarrett and Danno, and I love what we’ve both done with the characters.

— Alex O’Loughlin, Collider, 19 September 2010

Things I would have liked to see explored:

I know the schedules of the actresses involved, might mess up story lines (Claireand Autumn being unavailable), but it would have been real fun to see the two friends go on a double date. 😀

Danny’sreaction if Steve would ever intrude on his “romantic” endeavours.

Maybe more of Danny’s family can come for a visit. There are so much potential to see how Steve fit in with the Williamsfamily.

I vote for at least one episode each season, featuring a visit from Tony Archer. 😀

In conclusion:

To me it seems like fans and their experience of Danny is greatly connected with their feelings about Scott. Those of them who love and adore him, want Danno to shag Steve all the time. And those that do not like him find fault with almost everything Danny does. 😀 Then there are those of us, whether we like Scott or not, who just look at the character of Danny Williams that he and the writers created. We look at what he means to Steve as a friend and colleague and how he fits into the picture of Hawaii Five-0 as a team.

Most of the time we look at what Steve has lost in life, but forget that who Danny is, also stems from the losses he has suffered. Losing a close friend at a young age to such a tragedy as drowning right in front of you, can leave a lot of unresolved issues. Losing a police partner in such a horrible way and on such a memorable day, as with Grace, definitely influenced Danny and his outlook on life. Most probably made him a bit neurotic and a pain in the ass to be with – hence Rachael, the love of his life, leaving him. With her leaving him, she robbed him of a “normal” family life with his beloved daughter. Then taking Gracie away to another world and him following them, all the way to Hawaii, took his larger family and their support away from him. Add to that losing his brother and his other police partner to greed and corruption! And worst of all, even the Boy Scouts threw him out. 😀 No wonder he sometimes gets across as pessimistic, whining and a pain in the ass……

But then we also have Danny, the honorable straight shooter. The guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, with character traits that immediately drew Steve to him when they first met. A man who is a partner and a friend he can trust. Trust in the time when they met, was certainly a great need for Steve and he saw that quality in Danny and Danny has never failed him on that since then!!

I, for one, can’t wait to see where the new season will lead our two friends! Of course my main concern is with Steve (because Alex plays him 😛 ), but his character would seem a bit hollow without his Danno …… Book’em Danno! 🙂

(Alex said this about JLo, but I think he kind of see it as relevant for relationships (real and fictional) in general. Maybe we as fans can learn something from it. In other words, getting along with and loving another person does not equal romance and sex)

A lot of people think chemistry is strictly sexual and it’s not the case. I have chemistry with my mates, you know? It’s about two people who have a common interest in one another, who get each other, who understand each other’s rhythms, who can riff each other, who can make each other laugh — all that sort of stuff. And so we had that right away; we were laughing and the talk was easy.

53 responses to “Hawaii Five-0 S3 – A season for ugly corpses and awful surprises…Part 2”

I love bromance. let’s leave it at that, because I can’t comment on the corpses stuff too much. Oh and James Caan has a TV show this fall, so he will most likely not be able to come and film. Unless it tanks. Which would be bad either way. 😦 It looks like only 1 episode has been filmed, but I saw ABC advertising it…. Called Back in the Game http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2655470/

Luna, like I said to somebody else on part 1 – the corpses are mostly used in a metaphorical reference. Our team solve the cases of people who in most intrances never deserved to die and there is the uglyness for me (not so much they way they really look) 🙂

Personally i am a big fan of the bromance, but not in a sexual way.
I like to see Steve and Danno as best friends, brothers like if you wish but in no way I would want to see them snog or else.
Everybody is free to wish or like what they do, just for me there isn’t any sexual aspect to their bromance.
But I love how their friendship has grown and developed over the seasons and the great affection and respect they have for each other.
I am 100% an Alex girl but I also like Scott and the way he portrays Danno. I think that if my eyes (and hormones) weren’t already fully taken by Alex I could easily have developed a crush on Scott.

I am a big fan of the bromance on the show. To me the bromance is the heart and soul of this show. If the Bromance dies the show goes with it. NOw I am going to be honest I have a freaky little mind and somtimes do have naughty little ship thoughts between steve and danno I admit it but I know on this show that is not what there bromance is about. After reading your reivew I can see why they have a bromance. To me danno and steve are like brothers have become family and to me that is just as beautiful as well.

Now I love Alex as steve there is no doubt about that and that love will never die, but I will have to admit that I have fallen for danno as well. If in a fansty world there was no gabby and it was me I would date danno peroid, I think deep down inside there is a sweet guy. Now I don’t know what is going on out there but I adore scott. I don’t hate him, I love him on the show and I love the way he plays danny and I have how well he plays off of alex they are great together. “In a past time is my favorite episode of last season and I love them in it. Looking forward to what is instore for the bormance of season 4.

Hi Venia
I have no problem with the shipping or fanfiction part of things. It is good fun for every one of us to have couples that we would like to match because we like them and for some to write those stories and others to read it!!
I just think that a lot of fans are setting themselves up for disappointment if they expect stuff from the show that it will never deliver.
Most of the people that I have seen of late that have “fallen out of love” with the show, did so because the show did not deliver on their fantasies.
The show can definitely not cater for every one of the millions of fans needs – we kind of have to take what the network allows and what the producers, writers and actors give us (It is their show). I find it kind of arrogant of people to demand that their views be used! And then those “fans” start to act like screaming babies if their spesific take on the show is not catered for.
(Sorry for the rant – let’s blame it on PMS 😀 )

And like you, I love those two guys together and I can’t wait to see them bring their stuff in the new season!

See that’s funny, because I was the exact opposite. I suppose it just goes to show how differently different sets of fans will view the same show. I will admit I went into watching H50 at the beginning, expecting to get a shiny new ship to play with, only to very quickly realise I felt absolute no slashy connection with the characters, and beyond that season 1’s ‘forced’ bromance aspect (like they needed to remind us about it every second line or something) made me feel insulted as a queer identified person. I actually rage quit the show during season 1, because of the bromance aspect. Not that I don’t appreciate bromance, or ‘ship teasing’, I just felt they crossed the line into something called ‘queer baiting’ and at that point I just couldn’t stand to watch the show anymore, because it made me feel physically angry. The only reason I’ve since gone back and tried to watch a few of the later episodes is because I heard they’d eased back a bit.

An explanation of queer baiting and why it’s problematic: (This deals more with single characters in shows. I also extend this definition to include the attraction of any audience, queer identified folks and shippers alike)

I thought you were talking about fans who’s fantasies were to have Steve and Danno as a couple, and who then bailed on the show, because their fantasies weren’t fulfilled. Whereas I bailed on the show because I wanted the show to stop pushing the Steve & Danno angle as much as it did in season 1

To me there’s a difference between a fan who says ‘either have the guts to put them together, or quit with the queer baiting bullshit’ and a fan who goes into a meltdown, because ‘OMG they’ve paired one half of my ship up with a WOMAN! HOW DARE THEY!!!! I’m never watching this show again, EVER!!!!’

Yes thank, now I understand.
To be honest with you those people are sticking around and they are making the show horrible for us that love it for what it is. If they would just bail and stop with all their negativity, that would be great!
On the other hand, me as a straight person with many straight and gay male friends that are not in sexual relationships with each other act exactly the same way as Steve and Danny. Not once in the show did I ever get the feeling that the show suggest that they are suppose to be more than two straight men that love each other as brothers…If other people see it that way and feel baited by it, then so be it.
All my gay friends laugh at me when I tell them that people think there is more than friendship to this Bromance!
(and funny enough most of them think Scott is a lot sexier and appealing than Alex – think I should end those friendships 😉 , but then again some are family so that might be difficult)

This is in reply to the thread. Wow, I have never heard of any of this. I am late to the party I started watching in the middle of season 3 and loved Alex’s portrayal of Steve so much I was hooked. Then I went back and watched season 1 and season 2 and caught up on season 3, yes I have no life, I was only working part time.

Anyway, I have gone to some message boards and read FB and there does seem to be a lot of negativity about realism and so on. I guess I don’t take it so seriously, to me it is an hour of fun with hot guys and good, funny and sometimes heartwarming relationships. Honestly, the only episode I didn’t like was the reality TV one with Aisha Taylor and it was because they way it was shot gave me a headache. I just go along for the ride and have fun every week.

I love the banter between Steve and Danno especially in the car and to me they have always been like brothers no more, no less. And I agree when I stop enjoying a show, Criminal Minds for instance, I stop watching it. Just my two cents. I learn so much from this site. 🙂

Visage13, you are my kind of fan! 🙂
It is actually so much fun to learn more about Alex every day. Enjoy the ride!

We actually try not to bring all the negativity here and if one stay away from those negative places, it still remains a lot of fun.
For me it is the first time ever being part of a fandom. A total eye opener on how serious people can take things and spoil their own fun!
Hawaii Five-0 has never taken itself too seriously and the cast and crew seems to have a lot of fun. And so should we as fans…..
Be entertained or move on.

I totally agree with this “Be entertained or move on” I don’t frequent those sites too much, life it too short to be around negativity. That is what I love about this site good fun about one of my fave actors in a show I enjoy. 🙂

Hi Foyeur. What would make me leave a show is bad writting, acting and storytelling. Yes I admit I have some freaky naughty thought about danno and steve shipping but becasue that does not happen on the show would not dissapoint me. I know on the show that is not what their relationship is about. I love what they have on the show. I love the carguments that they have. That is what makes them who they are. They do fall in love but it is not a sexual relationship. to me they are like brothers and after reading the wonderful review here of there bromance they are damage goods in some way. They need each other, but it is not sex. it is sad that fans would leave becaue somthing hot did not happen, becaue they are missing a good show.

Now I will admit that this season was not the best but not becaue danno and steve did not hook up, that is not what this show is about and I am fine with that. Now I will say someone who has fallen in love, me with Scott cann as Danno.

I love danno and I love the way Scott Cann plays him. When in season one I did not know who he was, I was just in love with alex and so happy he was back on tv, but over the season I have come to love Danno. I love all of danno I love the pain in the ass danno, but I also love the the caring danno, the one who loves his daughter and his friends around him. I do belive deep down inside danno has a heart and cares, but he is who he is, and that is what makes their “marriage” as he puts it, work. Scott and alex are a great team and thank god they team up becaue scott works well with alex. Looking forward to them in season 4.

The funniest part of show is when the buddies are teasing each others and I hope to see more of that light harted banter. But the angry yelling Danny is my worst nightmare, he has ruined some scenes for me.
Just happened to watch 321 with the banter in the car, about the TV remote control and undeciveness of D. so funny 😀

I think the point I wanted to make somewhere in the story is that Danny might have some issues from his past, that let him fly of his handle a bit at times and make him a whining asshole – I sometimes do the same 😀

I love danno how he is, i can understand his whining sometimes and it’s ok, it’s him! I will never forget the first bromance moments in s1! To be straight, steve was an arrogant @ssh***e too when he walked into danno’s appartment and made him work with him! He wasn’t even listening when danno was trying to say something about him being a dad and not want to get killed! Not everybody is a fearless, “he can look after himself” (i trained him) killer machine😉!!

For me i always see Chin as the older brother, Kono as baby sister and Steve and Danno as twins – are always imply each other but can not live without each other. Their friendship grown and now is so strong and with their cool sense of humor makes the best bromance on TV.

I’m a Alex/Steve’s fan but i like Danny and Scott does a good job bringing the city cop to Hawaii surroundings, with all his feelings and losses that you describe so well. A honest man at work and in life, a true friend. Yes, sometimes pessimistic, whining and a pain in the ass but nobody is perfect.

I subscribe your “things I would have liked to see explored”.

I loved this recap Foyeur because the bromance is a mark of Hawaii five-0 and Alex and Scott are great together.

Looking forward for season 4 and from the spoilers i think we will have a good season start from a bromance point of view.

Wonderful post FOYeur! I will comment more after I pack a few more boxes. I’m way behind on moving since I was sick all day yesterday.
BTW I love the bromance! Call me what you want, I admit I am a McDanno fan. 🙂 Whatever is going to get us some Alex unclothed, on screen, I am a fan! So go McRoll too! I go both ways…j/k. 😉
I think my cold medicine is making me lupey. 😕

Thanks for your review. I agree Danno is a intricate part of the show!! I loved how Steve and Danno hit it off first thing, they clicked. So ones is a perfect police and one great investigator (Steve) but together they make a great team.
I loved the carguments. That is what drew me to the show, at least the first episode I saw of H50.
I love, love the ending of 3:05.. I am sorry but the movie stuff and Cath and Steve. Cath finding out that Steve has never seen the end of Halloween movie, and the taking his out and watching the “Notebook” (great movie!!) and then snuggling on the couch with Grace cuz Steve was ignoring her! 🙂
but the best is the bromance, Steve wrapping him arm around Danno, and Danno snuggling in!! OY!! LOL!!

All seriousness now.. I can’t watch 3:06 without crying either. I am Canadian but know what that day has done to all of us. And the way they told that story, and Steve’s face finding out what day it was. Then the hug and Steve’s face after Danno leaves to go to the “father daughter dance” Oh my..

3:22 – I agree might have crossed the lines of police brutality, but I agree, you can only hold back so much. When they were in the HQ building, Danno had to take a walk, but that made sense, that guy wasn’t the guy!
And the way the other guy acted, he wasn’t gonna answer anyhow, now matter how much Danno talked to him! The guy was playing with Danno.
The only thing that bothers me, is Danno’s hands aren’t bruised or cut when he picks up the little girls in the box.
WOW, this one of the longest post I have done here!! Sorry to babble on!

Excellent post!! You did an outstanding job! I agree, the fans that gave up on the show because they want to actually see something between Steve and Danno need to just let it go. Don’t ruin it for the rest of us.

Fans can be crazy sometimes. I actually had someone suggest to me once that CBS’s cancellation of Moonlight was a homophobic conspiracy, because they became too aware of how obvious the subtext was between Mick and Josef and decided to pull the show rather than risk a backlash from certain segments of the American population.

You know I’m pretty sure CBS isn’t in the habit of pulling shows based on what amounts to fannish interpretation of subject matter commited by a very small percentage of the fandom itself.

Unfortunately with any show you’ll always get idiots like this, and when you’ve got a popular show, with a largeish fandom and a juggernaut pairing like Steve/Danno, it just becomes compounded by being that much more vocal and obvious.

Jesus, FOYeur, that’s a lot of stuff to read – and to look at. First of all thank you so much for putting in so much time and effort. Adorable:-))
With the bromance and cargument thing I totally agree with most of you. It is awesome. I wouldn’t want to miss it.
However, drawing the conclusion that Danny is acting weird sometimes cause he had a lot of losses (which he had indeed) is a bit too simple for me. I would put it more into the character thing (the character they wrote for him for Five O). He is cranky and whining, and if he still had Rachel and his little family he probably would only be cranky.:-)) I personally don’t care too much for him, but the faces he’s teasing out of Steve are priceless. I’d say his right to exist is to let Steve shine.

Fabulous post!! Love your POV, Ms. Foyeur, cuz it is so very close to my own. 😆

I also love many of y’all’s comments. This show is for fun! There was NEVER any indication from CBS or @PLenkov that this was gonna be a Masterpiece Theater presentation. It’s a silly but very entertaining cop show with an awesome bromance, a charming Ohana, and a lotta big fat explosions! And I don’t feel they are baiting the gay community with the bromance, cuz it’s so very clearly two overly self-confident straight guys who can also be a tad (or even extremely) socially clueless. They don’t get at all that they sometimes act “married”, that their sometimes inappropriate intimacies, like fixing each other’s tie or bitching about the other’s cooking skills, seem like domestic innuendo to others. THAT’s the joke. The show is making fun of the two badasses, not the audience, not the gay community. And I laugh at it every time. 😀

I am not much of a Scott fan, I must admit. I went into the show knowing nothing about him, and I don’t find him particularly endearing. But I LOVE Danno. He’s a screaming maniac half the time, but he’s a little guy with a big heart and this is just how he thinks he must be to be heard. Life isn’t fair, but Danno has learned to cope. I mean, McG so much as clears his throat and the oceans part. Danno gotta wave his arms and scream to be heard, you know? And even then, McG is sitting over there quietly laughing inside. McG’s more evil than we know. 😉

The problem for me in season 1 wasn’t necessarily the way Steve and Danno interacted with one another, it was the running commentary from other characters – ‘haha, you guys look like a couple…are you married or something…is that your wife, hahahaha’ (I’m paraphrasing, obviously). Why did they need to have other characters constantly pointing out the humour of the situation? Were we supposed to have seen their interaction as a joke? Laugh everyone, they’re acting like a couple, like even the possibility of a same sex relationship is to be treated as little more than a punchline to a joke. And keep in mind this was at a time when CBS decided to censor a male on male kiss during an awards show. So on the one hand it’s okay for them to have a show that constantly points out how funny it is that these two straight guys get mistaken for a couple, because you know that’s just hilarious,but then on the other hand they turn around and freak out when an actual gay guy kisses another guy on a show, and that needs to be banned.

In later episodes and seasons I noticed they just let the guys do their thing and seemed to leave it up to the audience to choose their own response, whether they saw it as amusing, or shippy, or bromance, or just plain friendship, and that I don’t have a problem with. It’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve actually gone back and tried to watch a few more episodes to see if I can get into the show. I can definitely say I’ve loved Alex’s performance in all the episodes I have watched.

Ah! I didn’t see it that way, Em. I never once took the ribbing from other characters as making fun of gay, or the possibility of gay, or of those who are gay. Nor do I think that Scott or Alex would go along with that, if that HAD been the purpose of the writers.

Danno and McG are both ridic characters. They are SO intense, SO heroic. Yet they fight (each other) like children. And then these crazy macho guys turn around and get all up in each other’s personal business, and even get all mushy about it. Ridic. Totally. Their intimacy in each other’s lives would cross a line for most friends. But neither one of them have the social skills to get that they cross normal lines of politesse. So the joke is making fun of them. They ARE acting like a couple, and they have no clue they’re doing it.

But what kind of couple? Not a normal loving gay couple or a normal hetero married couple. They are like a cliche of another kind of couple tho… of a crabby old married couple who grump at each other all day long over every little thing, but who would not hesitate to literally wipe the drool off each other’s mouth after the meds, clean out the other’s gross eye infection, or administer him an enema. The married jokes really are married jokes. They are my grandparents.

Btw, if you called em gay… which the girl in the sorority house did this season… they wouldn’t care. It’s not about making fun of gay. It’s about making fun of their social awkwardness and cluelessness. With a little bit of “awwww, they’re so cute, they love each other!” thrown in.

And Paula, I know. Danno’s rants sometimes make me crazy too. But McG is usually fighting a smile. Also McG sometimes provokes the rants. He has a perverted sense of humor.

I’m definitely seeing more of what you’re saying in later episodes, and to me that’s when it becomes cute and funny.Especially because they’re leaving it more up to the viewer to interpret things for themselves, instead of telling us how we’re ‘supposed’ to be responding to something.

I really want to like this show. I see so many people getting so much enjoyment out of it, I kinda feel left out sometimes. It’s why I keep giving the show a go, trying to watch episodes to see if I can get something to click.

after reading this great review I want to say to me ( I don’t know about anybody else but to me IN A PAST TIME was my favorite episode from this past season and one of their best in a while. I felt the episode was well written, and for the first time I actually cried @ the end.

I enjoy Danny backstory and it show he does have a heart and he does care. I loved the bromance of this episode. Danny may yell at steve at times but you see how he cares for steve by asking him to take care of Grace. I felt the 9/11 tie in was done very good as well. Alex and scot nailed their acting ( as always) and showed why we loved them as a team and their bromance.

Say what you want about their bromance but I felt it was beautiful in this episode. It should the love they have for each other( it’s not a sexual love but a brotherly love , and how they have become like family. To me danny and steve may come from different points in their lives, but they do need each other, and are learning to understand each other and realize they are each other best friend. I truly think that if something should happen to steve it will devastate danny and the other way around. I hope in season 4 we see their relationship grow and see them become family.

Yes, Venia
I am a big sucker for stories like this and using big historical events in it. I really think they used it well and never over the top! And also never forced. The case of the week also tied in nicely with the history! It just gave us a better look at Danny and let us see how the freindship grows even more! (I would give it a place in my top 5 episodes of all seasons) 🙂

I like your post foyeur! I adore your work and the effort you put in every post. It’s a pleasure to read, even if I don’t feel the same everytime. In this case I especially like what you’ve said about the maturity of Steve’s and Danny’s friendship last season. So so true! And also a reason why I can’t understand the complaining of some McDanno fans. They get so much more than other shippers!
But. (And this ‘but’ is the reason I’m lurking around this post for a while, the bromance fans (and I know some) are so sensitive… ;))
Here it goes. I don’t like Danny at all. His constant yelling, whining, complaining not only annoys me, it often makes me so angry. It ruins these scenes. I know he cares, but he is incapable to express it in a way without risking to hurt peoble. Because words DO hurt. Calling his best friend on a daily basis neanderthal, animal, idiot or moron is no fun at all. And it’s not only Steve who has to accept these insults, latterly it’s Max too and Kamekona… I really don’t get his reasons to do so. He is an adult person! That’s his way to cope? What? Maybe he should ask Steve or Chin for that matter how to cope with a real horrible fate! In 2.01 his friend was framed for murder and stabbed. Danny’s way to cope was yelling and yelling and insulting Max. Chin’s was to ask: R U OK??? Maybe Danny should watch Alex’ vid someday. Friendship happens over the little things. Giving your friend and his daughter a present like ‘swimming with dolphins’, lying to the FBI so that said friend can talk to his criminal brother one last time or making sure (two times!!!) that he doesn’t lose custody of his daughter.
Yet the worst about Danny is not only that he has no problem to sleep with a married woman, he is full of double standards and a hypocrite. He preaches Steve abstinence and drinks wine. And that’s what really makes me mad and furious. No lovable features for me.
But I like what Anwyn said: *I’d say his right to exist is to let Steve shine.* LOL!!!
I’m trying to keep that in mind next season! And sorry Danny fans, I don’t want to be harsh, it’s absolutely OK to like him. I have no problem with that. But me? I just can’t!